SERVING STUDENTS WHO SERVED

Chris Weakley stands out from many of his fellow undergraduate students at Emory University.

At 33, the former U.S. Army explosives ordnance disposal (EOD) specialist has a perspective on what he is learning in the classroom that is built on 15 years of experience in the Army — including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and a stint with an EOD response team protecting the White House.

When injuries led Weakley to leave the military in 2016, he enrolled in college as a freshman.

“I spent a lot of time getting impatient and getting worked up in my first year of college. I was very hard on myself mentally. I put way too much strain on myself to be perfect,” Weakley says. “I had to be better than everyone else. Then I realized it was so absurd to stress out about getting a B. It is a lot easier to be relaxed about simple things now. There are more serious things out there than having to be perfect on every test.”

Recently, when he saw some younger classmates stressed about an accounting midterm, Weakley did his best to share the lessons he’s learned outside the university.

“I told them that I treat the test like I would handle a roadside bomb — I do the things that are going to take me the longest first, then worry about the smaller stuff later,” he explains.

It is important to him to serve in that mentorship role because he values the support he has gotten from other veterans at Emory and from the university.

Emory has long supported the health care needs of veterans — changing lives through initiatives such as the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program — and that commitment has expanded in recent years to encompass the academic goals of the nation’s growing population of military veterans.

It is estimated that more than 5 million post-9/11 service veterans have transitioned from the military into civilian life to date, with about 200,000 veterans leaving the military each year. And while many will head directly into the workforce, others will seek university degrees under the GI Bill.

Emory is an ideal destination for those veterans, says retired Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, associate dean of leadership at Goizueta Business School. Keen came to Emory following a 38-year career in the U.S. Army. Shortly after arriving at Emory, he began working with Julie Barefoot, associate dean of engagement and partnerships at the business school, to improve veteran access and recruitment.

Beyond helping educate men and women who had served their country, veterans in the classroom “enrich the student experience for Emory at large,” Keen says. “Emory prides itself on diversity; this is part of that diversity.”

Weakley transferred to Emory in fall 2018 with the ultimate goal of working in the film and television industry.

“I applied to Emory because Atlanta has a huge film scene and Emory has an excellent reputation. I wanted to do a business-centric degree and luckily I can do both here,” says Weakley, who is pursuing a finance degree. “The university has done a fantastic job of making me feel at home, and the MBA students who are veterans have gone out of their way to help me.”

Keen emphasizes that veterans bring drive, discipline and a solid work ethic to their academic journey.

“They’ve already proven they can be successful; they just need to know how to translate those skills to be successful in an academic environment,” he says. “We needed to help create an environment for them to succeed, and Emory is doing that in a very aggressive way.”

Speaking at a New York Times-moderated discussion Emory hosted in March 2019 about obstacles veterans face in the civilian workplace, Emory President Claire E. Sterk described the university’s multi-dimensional mission and “the value that veterans bring to our community.”

“We offer programs and opportunities across the university to serve veterans — health care, legal support and much more,” noted Sterk, whose husband, Emory research professor Kirk Elifson, served as a captain in combat intelligence for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. “We also have veterans who are employed at Emory. But it’s realistic to recognize there is much more we can and should do.”

To borrow a phrase, “if you build it, they will come,” Sterk said. “Our veterans need to know that we are building it. We want them to come here, be it as a student, a professor, a staff member, or someone who contributes to Emory Healthcare — you need to know that door is open.”

Support for veterans on campus

Tyler Freeman, a dual MBA/juris master degree candidate at Goizueta and Emory Law, understands firsthand the cultural leap required to transition from service to school.

Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he graduated high school intent on entering a four-year college. After a half-semester, he knew it wasn’t the right fit, dropped out and joined the U.S. Marines, engaging in counter-terrorism work in Africa and Afghanistan.

More than five years and three deployments later, he emerged focused and determined. Aided by the GI Bill, Freeman began pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of North Carolina while working at Ameriprise Financial Services.

Pondering post-graduate options, he applied to Emory with nine years of work experience.

“As a veteran, I knew I needed a community where veterans felt supported,” he says. “And I knew I could find that in Emory and Atlanta.”

Since arriving in 2018, Freeman has become president of the Emory Veterans Association, a student-run group focused on providing support and opportunity for student veterans at Emory. EVA strives to make Emory a top destination for student veterans, offering networking, support and developmental opportunities for veterans and their families.

For Freeman and students like him, Emory’s commitment to providing veterans’ education benefits through all of the university’s undergraduate and graduate schools has been a game-changer.

Through the Yellow Ribbon Program, degree-granting institutions of higher learning in the U.S. voluntarily enter into an agreement with the Veterans Administration to fund tuition expenses that exceed the annual VA tuition and fees benefit. In 2017, Emory contributed more than $1.6 million in education support of veterans across the university’s nine schools and colleges.

“Veterans are traditionally underrepresented at top universities. A lot of veterans think they can’t get in, and then comes the cost factor. Whether they are public or private, top colleges and universities are often the most expensive in the state,” Freeman says. “Emory does a great job of saying to our veterans who are here, ‘Here’s how we are going to help you afford it.’”

Undergraduate students planning military careers can also participate in Army or Air Force ROTC through a cross-enrollment agreement with Georgia Tech. Students complete their undergraduate degrees at Emory and military training at Tech.

In addition to robust admission advice and financial support, veterans also are seeking “the community feel that they had when they were in service,” Freeman says. “These students need to find people who have something in common, someone who relates to them and who they can off-the-bat associate with, and that is the first part of developing that community.”

“We want veterans to know, when they are looking at Emory, that they will be able to find the resources they need.”

Continuing to serve others

Like many of his generation, second-year Emory Law student Grant Tucek was influenced by the tragedy of 9/11, which happened when he was in elementary school. By the time he’d graduated from Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Georgia, in 2009, he’d put in the significant work required to earn an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

He served in the Army after graduating from West Point in 2013, serving in Texas and Korea before leaving active duty and applying to law school.

Tucek applied to six law schools, but chose Emory for its high national rankings and location in a job market where his wife could find employment. When he enrolled in fall 2018, he became involved with the EVA to have a group of students with similar experiences. 

From the beginning, Tucek says he received valuable advice from another veteran, Earl Porter, who was in his third year of law school at the time and graduated in May.

“He was someone to talk to about your goals and who gave me tips on law school and understand the life changes you are going through,” Tucek notes. “While it is great to meet people with different experiences, it was nice to have a group of friends who have similar experiences of getting out of active duty and going to school full-time.”

Since then, Tucek has done his part to support other veterans at Emory, consulting with the admission office at Emory Law, offering to speak to other veterans who are prospective students. 

“We all want to make the veterans’ group stronger at Emory,” he says.

The daughter of a retired Navy chief petty officer, Christina Higgins accompanied her father on regular visits to the Veterans Affairs clinic while growing up in rural Kentucky. Watching her father cope with the aftereffects of exposure to Agent Orange while serving during the Vietnam War, she discovered early her desire to help others through medicine and to serve her country.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2006, Higgins was commissioned into the Navy in January 2007, serving in Pensacola, Florida. She followed with serving in Japan in international medical community relations leadership roles, including organizing international perinatal care symposiums.

Beginning with one class in 2008, she earned her master’s degree in administration in 2016 while serving full time, including a four-month deployment in 2015 as part of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Partnership, an annual humanitarian assistance and disaster-relief preparedness mission.

While assigned to the hospital ship USNS Mercy, Higgins — who is board certified in both obstetrics and forensic nursing — headed the sexual assault response division, doing training and providing obstetrical care alongside host nation midwives during stops in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Through a unique program that allows Naval officers to apply for graduate school to earn degrees in needed fields, Higgins was chosen as one of five officers allowed to attend graduate school full time while maintaining active-duty status.

She chose Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing for its doctor of nursing practice program in midwifery after reaching out to MaryJane Lewitt, clinical assistant professor and co-coordinator of the nurse-midwifery specialty at Emory.

“Emory has a big footprint in Atlanta; they have partnerships with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the CDC is right across the street. They offered incredible resources that other schools could not compare to,” Higgins says.

She didn’t openly discuss her status as an active duty Naval officer for her first year and a half at Emory, preferring to blend in with the other students in her cohort.

“I am already older than the traditional student and I didn’t want to cause tension or a sense of competition in the learning environment. I wanted my experiences to be a resource, not intimidating to other students,” she explains.

As she prepares to graduate in December and move on to her next duty station in Jacksonville, Florida, Higgins says she has appreciated both the support she has received at Emory from fellow students, faculty and her adviser, who is also a veteran.

“In the midst of it all, my husband and I had a baby girl, who just turned 6 months old. During that time and afterward, I have seen the most support from Emory — as a mother, as a graduate student and as a service member,” she says.

Much as her father’s example influenced her, Higgins hopes to be an example to others through her service and education.

“In life you establish connections with people that are formative in your life and in their lives, that influence the things that they create that go out into the world,” she says. “I want to continue finding ways to contribute through my education by reaching back and reaching around to make sure I don’t advance without bringing someone else with me.”

About this story: Written by Maria Lameiras and Kimber Williams. Photos by Kay Hinton and Ann Borden except where noted.